Not Enough Time In The Day
by percychased
Summary: The night is too cold, too tiring, for any of them to last very long. It only takes one moment of weakness for the Death Eaters to get you. Warnings for graphic/disturbing scenes. AU.


**Not Enough Time In The Day**

* * *

"No son of mine ignores a lady," says Mother, scowling at him. She's tall and imposing, especially today, in her matching pantsuit instead of her robes. "I swear, you wouldn't know romance if a puffskien bit you."

Frank, who knows better than to respond, stays silent.

"That poor girl. Now what does she think?"

A rhetorical question. _Don't answer._ Mother will answer for you.

"She probably thinks you hate her, poor Alice," Mother clucked, shaking her head. "Next Order meeting, you sit next to her. Do you hear me, Frank? You're a smart boy, despite your inability to comprehend anyone of the female gender. You take after your father in that way. That man had a cold heart years before he died."

Her whole body seems to shrug as she leaves the room, head back, shoulders high - she always makes sure her exits are as commanding as her words.

* * *

The meeting is called to attention, and Frank shifts in his chair. His heart is racing - he knows tensions are rising high, Muggles are being killed, and they need to put a stop to it. Despite the clammy palms and stiff muscles, he knows he'll do anything to help out. He knows a gathering this big is a huge risk, and it must be quick.

Get rid of all of them in one go. The Death Eaters could do that, if they knew about this.

He shifts a little more as Dumbledore speaks at the head of the table.

"I would like to welcome James and Lily Potter to the Order of the Phoenix," he gestures to the two newest members, a couple a few years younger than Frank, with a special gleam in his eye. "I see that we may need to address the issue at hand before anything else happens, however."

Frank knows the issue. James and Lily know the issue. Alice knows the issue. Hell, even Mundungus Fletcher knows the issue, and that's saying quite a bit.

"During this past week alone, ninety-seven Muggles have been killed brutally, in the most terrible ways humanely possible, at the whim of Voldemort," - there's a collective flinch, following his name - "and the Death Eaters. Every human life is worth the same, magical or Muggle, and this can go on no longer. There is no one who will be able to put a stop to this but the Order of the Phoenix, and I am positive in my belief that we can do it. Our aim and intent is not to kill, but to incarcerate."

It's Sirius Black who speaks up. "How are we supposed to put a stop to it if we don't know where the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who are going next?"

"That, my boy, is a very reasonable question, with no logical answer. We do not know where they are. We can only guess, using the information we have collected."

Dumbledore continues to explain his theory, with occasional contribution from the gathered Order members - Frank stays silent, leaning back in his chair, but Mother contributes to the conversation. He makes the group conversation short and quick, concluding the meeting with an assignment of posts.

"Following the pattern we've seen so far, the Royal Wizard's Orphanage is the only magical orphanage that has not been massacred - or attempted to, at the least - by the Death Eaters. Frank Longbottom, Alice Kinney, Benji Fenwick, Marlene McKinnon - the four of you are to meet with me after this meeting concludes to discuss this situation. Miss McKinnon's aptitude for shield and concealing charms will work well with Miss Kinney's defensive skill, I believe."

Dumbledore assigns different groups to guard different points in England - it's a new tactic, and one they're all eager to try - mostly because what they've been doing previous hasn't been working.

When Dumbledore pulls their group of four aside, he tells them when and where. Frank is surprised - although in hindsight, perhaps he shouldn't have been - that the mission is so soon. Tonight, in fact.

Alice shifts beside him, brushing his shoulder. "What do we do if there isn't an attack, Professor?"

A legitimate question, and a very real worry. Dumbledore pauses before answering. "Then we can know that the lives of a hundred children are safe."

* * *

It's Alice who stands next to him later that night, wands at the ready, creating wards around the building. They are stationed at the back - the building is gothic, tall, and imposing, and borders Knockturn Alley and the very edge of Diagon Alley. The Floo has been closed, Apparation wards set up - they are in a bubble.

No one comes in, no one comes out. It's safety, but it's also suffocation.

Alice leans back, her knuckles white as she clutches her wand. After a few seconds, she breathes out, and her whole body seems to droop with relief. Her eyes flutter closed for the briefest of moments before she stares back up at Frank.

"I think we're set," she says, quietly.

Frank nods. "We've covered everything," he says, in the same low tone. Although they've set such strong wards the Death Eaters would be unable to hear or see them, they feel the need to whisper. Knockturn Alley is a terrible, terrible place at night, and too much noise will attract you the wrong kind of attention.

The silence seems to be the most haunting, terrifying thing of all of this. They're leaning back against the cold stone wall of the orphanage building, resting but alert, and Frank thinks this is no time for awkwardness. She is pretty in a way he can't explain with words, and more intelligent than he could ever hope to understand, but that is not the point. His head needs to be clear. They are protecting this place, these innocent children who have done absolutely nothing to deserve to live in a world like this.

He steals a glance and notices she's shivering, but trying to stop. He looks at her for a moment longer, blinks.

She blinks back at him.

"You're freezing," he says dully.

"It's a cold night," she replies.

He shrugs off his outer robes, and hands them to her. "I've never been bothered by the cold much."

Frank's glad she doesn't protest and slips them on, shrinking the garment so she is not drowning in fabric. They have two very different body types, after all.

* * *

The stars still twinkle hours later and the street lights still create dull balls of light, casting a pale shadow on the colors around them. Nothing has happened, not a sound, not an animal, not a person. They're both grateful.

Until something _does _happen, and Frank thinks that the silence is just too good to be true when Marlene, from her post on the other side of the building with Benji, starts yelling.

There is a terrible screeching sounds as their wards are torn apart by crude, powerful magic, barbarity forcing itself inside. Frank's wand is at the ready, and he can tell Alice's is the same, hands shaking slightly and eyes drooping. From inside the building, there is the sound of cries - young children, scared of the unknown._  
_

He has never seen Muggle fireworks - only read about them - but this is what he'd picture them to look like, sparks upon sparks and the sky lighting up with green and red and yellow and purple, an array of terror and destruction.

There's six of the Death Eaters, four of them. They hiss and they taunt, but Frank and Alice remain taut and stiff, fighting with a power that was robotic. Automatic.

Marlene comes around, and soon they're all facing off, a battlefield of soldiers on opposite sides. One fighting for destruction, one fighting for safety.

Alice's spells become weaker. She's exhausted, off, not feeling well, cold, and the Death Eaters take advantage of this. She's thrown backwards into the stone back wall of the orphanage. Frank hears but he doesn't see, and when he finally catches a glimpse he sees something very horrific.

Her skull has shattered, probably a few vertebrae as well, most likely severing her cerebral artery and snapping her spinal cord.

He is nothing. He is hollow, and repulsed, and grief-stricken, and it all comes at once. He spins around and there is a wetness on his cheeks and he is choking on nothing, on air, because he cannot breathe. He doesn't know how to.

He really cannot breathe when a flash of green explodes in his face.

* * *

a/n - I was not intending to finish the fic at all like this... I suppose this ending makes this fic an AU. Sigh. Anyway, prompts are character, emotion, dialogue, setting, and word count. Exactly 1408 words.


End file.
